Caroll Spinney, the actor and puppeteer who portrayed Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch on Sesame Street over five decades, died Sunday at age 85.
The Sesame Workshop said Spinney had died at home in Connecticut, and that he had long lived with dystonia, a disorder that causes involuntary muscle contractions.
“Caroll and Big Bird are very similar in their genuine niceness and sweetness and lovingness,” said Joan Ganz Cooney, co-founder of the Sesame Workshop said in a video tribute to Spinney last year. “Hes just so respectful and so nice to all the kids, and all that comes across in Big Bird.”
At a celebration for the shows 15th anniversary in 1984, Muppet-master Jim Henson recounted how he and Spinney had met in August 1969 at a puppetry festival in Salt Lake City.
“Hes a very talented performer and he had a great sense of ad-libbing,” Henson remembered. “And he was doing this strange-looking cat on local television in Boston. And so we started talking at that point about doing this show, and I asked Caroll if hed enjoy coming and being part of this very strange bird.”
But Spinney also played the character with the opposite of Big Birds sunny persona: Oscar the Grouch.
“I loved playing Oscar. He has a power I never had. … I cant believe that Jim gave me two such characters that have become iconic, and are a part of so many people in America growing up.”
Spinney retired last year. As balance issues made the physically demanding role of Big Bird more difficult, the big yellow suit was taken on by another performer, Matt Vogel, while Spinney continued to voice Big Bird and Oscar.
In a 2015 interview with NPR, Spinney said it didnt bother him that people know Big Bird and Oscar, not Spinney himself. “I dont mind a bit because I know I can play them and also good pay and I get to take the pay home. Meanwhile, theyre back at Sesame Street.”
Spinney was originally directed to play Big Bird as “a funny, dumb country yokel,” he said last year. But he convinced Henson that itd be better to play Big Bird instead as a very big, feathered 6-year-old.
“I said, I think I should play him like hes a child, a surrogate,” he remembered. “He can be all the things that children are. He can learn with the kids.”
Before leaving the beloved children’s show in October 2018, Spinney voiced and operated Oscar, Big Bird’s sour neighbor who lived in a trash can. According to the show’s statement, Spinney had been “living with dystonia for some time” when he passed away at home in Connecticut.
Spinney arrived at Bozo’s Big Top after serving four years in the military, where he drew animation for the TV series and played a variety of roles. “He simply possesses a talent for crafting personas and bringing them to life,” Bozo the Clown, Frank Avruch, stated in I Am Big Bird. He is very creative, a wonderful artist. .
Despite the incident, Henson told Spinney, “I liked what you were trying to do,” when she saw him backstage. After Henson asked Spinney to discuss collaborating, Spinney was hired for the newly created Sesame Street, which debuted on PBS in November. 10, 1969.
Caroll Edwin Spinney was born on Dec. 26, 1933, in Waltham, Massachusetts. He claimed that because of his early obsession with puppets, he was bullied. He was pressured to enlist in the Air Force at the age of 19 due to a tense relationship with his father.
In 1986, Spinney received an invitation to travel on the Space Shuttle Challenger to encourage children’s interest in science. However, he had to turn down the opportunity because his costume would not fit in the available space. Spinney was watching television with millions of other people when the shuttle exploded seventy-three seconds into the flight, killing all seven crew members on board.
“Caroll and Big Bird are very similar in their genuine niceness and sweetness and lovingness,” said Joan Ganz Cooney, co-founder of the Sesame Workshop said in a video tribute to Spinney last year. “Hes just so respectful and so nice to all the kids, and all that comes across in Big Bird.”
Henson recalled, “He’s a very talented performer and he had a great sense of ad-libbing.” “And he was acting like this weird cat on Boston’s local television.” We then began discussing doing this show, and I asked Caroll if he would be interested in coming to be a part of this extremely unusual bird. “.
In a 2015 NPR interview, Spinney stated that it didn’t bother him that people were more familiar with Big Bird and Oscar than with him. “I don’t mind at all since I know I can play them, get good pay, and get to keep the money.” Meanwhile, theyre back at Sesame Street. “.
Spinney was originally directed to play Big Bird as “a funny, dumb country yokel,” he said last year. But he convinced Henson that itd be better to play Big Bird instead as a very big, feathered 6-year-old.
Jim Henson, the master puppeteer, recalled how he and Spinney first met in August 1969 at a puppetry festival in Salt Lake City during a 1984 celebration honoring the show’s fifteenth anniversary.